UK employment law for shift teams

A shift team bumps into employment law every time the week is tight: the gap between a close and the next open, a night that runs through midnight, a young worker on a long Saturday, and a law that has been passed but has not started. These guides separate the rules you can rely on today from the duties that are still waiting for a commencement date.

Night work and the Employment Rights Act posts live here. Rest breaks in the middle of a shift live under time and pay, because that is the question people ask when they mean a lunch. Daily rest and weekly rest are different questions again. This site will not invent a notice period or a cancellation rate that the regulations have not set.

The working time guide is the longer reference. The rest break calculator is one shift, not the statute. The zero-hours guide is where guaranteed hours, shift notice and cancellation pay are described as not in force yet. Use the legislation and the GOV.UK timeline, linked from the posts, when you need the source rather than the summary.

Working timeRest break calculatorZero-hours contractsRota software